Thousands gather in Istanbul to protest the Turkish government's crackdown on civil freedoms

Riot police use water cannons to disperse protesters during a protest against the arrest of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmakers, in Istanbul, Turkey November 5, 2016. Thomson Reuters

Thousands rallied in Istanbul on Sunday (November 20), protesting against the Turkish government and what they say is a clampdown on civil freedoms after a failed coup attempt earlier in the year.

NGOs, workers' unions and opposition parties came together in the Kartal district of Istanbul to protest against the ruling AKP party under the slogan: "We won't surrender', while Turkish police set up checkpoints around the area keeping a close eye on the demonstrators.

"Now the country [Turkey] is becoming a really bad place. We have innumerable problems. Only organised groups can confront these problems. So gathering here is very important," protester Vedat Sevim said.

Turkey is fighting an insurgency by PKK militants in the largely Kurdish southeast, but the arrest of pro-Kurdish politicians and journalists, part of a wider security clampdown in the wake of a failed July coup, has raised fears among Western allies for human rights in the country.

The crackdown on pro-Kurdish politicians has run parallel with a purge of people accused of ties to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Turkish authorities for masterminding July's coup attempt. Gulen denies the accusation.

More than 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere, while 36,000 people have been jailed pending trial as part of the investigation into the failed putsch.

Human rights groups and some Western allies have voiced concern at the scope of the purges, fearing President Tayyip Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to curtail dissent.

The Turkish government says the actions are justified given the threat to the state posed by the coup attempt, in which more than 240 people died.